When Bill Gates set his coders to work on Microsoft Excel 40 years ago, his ambition was to woo the world’s accountants. Almost four decades since he launched it at the Tavern on the Green restaurant in New York, the spreadsheet program is now being used by singles to organise their dates on Tinder, couples to plan weddings, parents to decide the best primary schools and the elderly to plan the perfect funeral.
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Our 40-year love affair with Microsoft Excel
In 2005, Kodak, the photographic company, admitted that it overpaid a former employee’s severance pay by $11 million because “the wrong formula was applied”, a spokesman said.
